Work-guiding and trimming device for sewing machines



June 19, 1934. F M, D 1,963.933

WORK GUIDING AND TRIMMING DEVICE FOR SEWING MACHINES Filed Sept. 21, 1932 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 fiederz'c M Card Warm:

June 19, 1934. F. M. CARD 1,963,933

WORK GUIDING AND TRIMMING DEVICE FOR SEWING MACHINES Filed Sept. 21, 1932 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 4 l 21 as L-- gwoemtoz Frederic M Card by a screw 15 against Patented June 19, 1934 PATENT OFFICE WORK-GUIDING AND TRHWMING DEVICE FOR SEWING MACHINES Frederic M. Card, Bridgeport, Conn, assignor to The Singer Manufacturing Company, Elizabeth, N. J a corporation of New Jersey Application September 21, 1932, Serial No. 634,101

6 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in work-guiding devices for sewing machines, and more particularly in edge-guides adapted for use in conjunction with horizontally vibratory trimmers of the so-called Barber type.

The primary object of the invention is to provide means for guiding the work in order to selectively 'trim the lower plies of successively different articles at predetermined different distances from the edge of upper plies of said articles and in the operation of stitching said plies. Other and more specific objects of the invention will be apparent from the following description and claims.

The invention consists in the devices, combinations and arrangements of parts hereinafter described in connection with the accompanying drawings which illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention and in which:-

Fig. 1 represents a view in top plan of a portion of the work-support or cloth-plate of a sewing machine having a commercially well known Barber type trimmer, and of the usual roller-presser and the present improved edge-guiding device, the roller-presser bracket and the needle being shown in cross section. Fig. 2 is a vertical section longitudinally of the cloth-plate through the needle-aperture in the throat-plate and illustrating the trimmer and edge-guide in front elevation. Fig. 3 represents an enlarged cross-section substantially on'the line 3-3 of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 represents perspective views of the edge-guide carrying and position-determining brackets, including the bracket-shifting lever. Fig. 5 represents a perspective View of the blade or fin end of the trimmer knife.

Referring to the drawings, the sewing machine in the present instance has a horizontally disposed work-supporting cloth-plate 1 including slide-plates 2 and '3. Secured upon the clothplate is'a throat-plate 4 having a needle-aperture 5 and a slot through which projects a feed-wheel '6. Opposed to the feed-wheel is a presser-roller 7 carried by a bracket 8 secured upon the usual spring-depressed presser-bar 9. The stitch forming mechanism includes a vertically reciprocatory needle 10 and a loop-taker 11 of the vertical-axis rotary hook type, it being understood, however, that the present invention is not limited to any specific type of sewing mechanism.

The trimmer mechanism comprises a supporting plate 12 secured by screws 13 upon the clothplate and apertured to receive a bearing-bushing The bushing 14 is clamped the under face of a knife 14 of the disk type.

driving lever 16 which is thus pivotally disposed upon the upper face of the plate 12 for swinging movements about a vertical axis. Pivotally supported upon the driving lever 16 for horizontal swinging movements about a vertical axis disposed adjacent to and at the needle side of the pivotal axis of said lever 16 is a knife-carrying lever '17 having as its fulcrum a bearing boss 18 of a disk 19, the boss 18 entering a bearing aperture provided in the lever 17. The disk 19 is clamped by the head of a screw 20 upon the upper face of the driving lever 16, said screw 20 having its threaded shank of smaller diameter than the screw-receiving aperture of the disk to thereby provide for universal horizontal adjustment of the pivot-axis of the knife-carrying lever 1'7.

Adjustably secured by screws 22 and a clampplate 23 upon the arm of the lever 17 adjacent to the needle is the longitudinally slotted shank 24 of a trimmer knife having at its free end a vertically depending fin 25 located adjacent to the needle-path and provided with a cutting edge 26 opposed to the direction of feed. The shank of the trimmer knife is sufficiently flexible to yield vertically to difierentthic'knesses of work passing thereunder and its height above the work-support may be slightly adjusted by a screw 2'? threaded into the clamp-plate 23 and underlying the trimmer-knife shank 24, access being afiorded to the screw by a slot 28 in said knife shank. The throatplate 4 has an edge 29 adjacent to the needlepath and preferably slidingly engaged by the knife fin duringa part of the work-severingmovemerits of the knife.

It is to be understood that the pivotal support for the knife-lever 17 upon the driving lever 16 provides merely for horizontally swinging the trimmer knife into and out of action and for manually cutting the work in advance of the needle, the driving lever being provided adjacent to its pivotal axis with oppositely directed wings 30 to support the knife lever when swung .out of operative position backwardly and forwardly. The front wing 30 of the driving lever preferably has seated in its upper face a ball 31 engaged by a suitable notch in the under face of the knife lever 1'7 to hold the knife in its rearwardly retracted position. In its operative position, the tail end of the knife-lever 17 resiliently enters a notch 32 provided in the upturned rearward end of the driving lever 16, said knife-lever terminating in a finger-piece 33 which provides convenient means for manually lifting the flexible knife-lever out of the driving lever notch 32 when it is desired to disconnect the knife-lever from its driver.

Secured by a screw 34 for pivotal movements upon the driving lever 16 and to depend through a slot 35 in. the cloth-plate 1 is a forked block 36 provided with a vertical guideway for a slide-block 38. The slide-block 38 is pivotally secured by a screw 39 upon the upper arm of an actuating lever 46 fulcrumed upon a horizontally disposed pin 41 suitably secured to a bracket 42 depending from the cloth-plate. The forked lower arm of the lever embraces a double-cam 43 carried by a rotary actuating shaft 44 beneath the cloth-plate.

The type of trimming -mechanism above described is commonly employed for undertrimming the linings of shoes, etc., and for certain classes of work it is desirable to undertrim a greater distance from the edge of the upper than in other classes of work. For instance, when the shoe upper has a burnished edge finish, it is a common practise to trim the lining substantially flush with the edge of the upper, while in a folded edge finish of the upper the lining is undertrimmed a greater extent. During the course of a days work, an operator may be required to repeatedly change from one class of work to another and nevertheless obtain products which are of a uniform character in each class. To this end, the present invention comprehends the provision of an edgeguide for the upper ply which is conveniently shiftable from one to another of predetermined edge-guiding positions and is adapted for employment with a trimmer mechanism of the type described.

For this purpose, there is provided an edgeguide 45 having its operative end disposed above the cutting-fin end of the knife 24. The shank 46 of the edge-guide is pivotally secured by a screw 47, for horizontal swinging movements into and out of operative position, upon a shelf 48 of a bracket'having an upstanding wall 49 from which the shelf 48 extends laterally to overhang the knife-levers 16 and 17 in a position which is non-obstructive so far as concerns the necessary swinging movements of said levers. The wall 49 of the guide-bracket extends substantially par-,

allel with the direction of feed and rises from one'edge of a bracket-base 50 provided upon its under face with a guide-rib 51 transverse to the direction of feed. The guide-rib 51 slidingly enters a guide-groove in the upper face of an auxiliary supporting plate 53 secured by screws 54 upon the trimmer supporting plate 12 rearwardly of the trimmer mechanism, the bracket-base 50 being provided with alined slots 55 exposing the screws 54 for ready access thereto.

Pivotally secured by a stud-screw 56, threaded into the auxiliary plate 53 and passing through a slot in the bracket-base 50, is an angular handlever 58 provided with a slot 59 elongated transversely of the guide-rib 51 and entered by a pin 60 rising from the bracket-base. The hand-lever 58 extends between the bracket-shelf 48 and the knife-lever 16 and terminates at its free end in a thumb-piece 61, it being understood that by swinging the hand-lever 58 about its pivot-screw 56, the bracket 48, 49, 50 and the edge-guide 45 carried thereby may be shifted upon the supporting plate 53 in a straight path toward and from the line of seam-formation, i. e., in a direction transversely of the depending knife-fin 25. A friction-washer 58 between the head of the screw 56 and the hand-lever 58 serves to yieldingly hold said hand-lever in its different positions.

7 In order to adjustably limit the extent of shifting movements of the edge-guide, the

bracket-base 50 has a lug 62 inclined upwardly and rearwardly to extend between opposed shoulders 63 and 64 rising from a plate 65 secured upon the supporting plate 53 by screws 66 for adjustment crosswise of the line of seam formation. Threaded into the shoulder 63 for adjustment toward and from the shoulder 64, and secured by a lock-nut 67, is a stop-screw 68 disposed in the path of the lug 62 to adjustably limit movement of the edge-guide in one direction. The shoulder 64 of the plate 65 serves as an adjustable stop limiting movement of the edge-guide in the opposite direction.

A fiat spring 69 secured upon the vertical wall 49 of the edge-guide bracket has a V-shaped detent '70 adapted to enter a correspondingly shaped notch provided in the rounded end of the edge-guide shank 46 to hold the edge-guide in its operative position. Swinging movement of the edge-guide into operative position is limited by a stop-screw '72 adjustably threaded into a lip 73 depending from the edge-guide shank, said screw engaging the forward edge of the bracketshelf 48. When the edge-guide is shifted into a retracted position, as shown for instance by dotted lines in Fig. 1, the spring detent 7U rides the edge of the guide shank 46 to frictionally hold the edge-guide in the position into which it is shifted.

In the accompanying drawings, the edge-guide is illustrated in its operative position nearest to the needle-path and determined by the engagement of the bracket lug 62 with the stop-screw 68, i. e., the edge-guide occupies its operative position in which, as illustrated in Fig. 2 of the drawings, a lining L is trimmed substantially flush with the burnished edge of an upper ply of material M. By manipulating the lever 58, the edge-guide may be shifted away from the needlepath a predetermined extent limited by the stopshoulder 64 and into another operative position in which the lining is undertrimmed with respect to the. margin of the upper ply. It will be understood that the separate adjustments of the stop-shoulder 64 and stop-screw 68 provide for changing both the range and field of shifting movement of the edgeguide, in accordance with the desired character of the work.

Having thus set forth the nature of the invention, what I claim herein is:-

1. In a sewing machine having .a vertically reciprocatory needle and work-feeding mechanism, the combination with a trimmer mecha-. nism adapted to trim the under of superposed plies of material and including a horizontally vibratory trimmer-blade having a cutting edge opposed to the direction of feed, of a supporting bracket shiftable transversely of the direction of feed, an edge-guide supported by said bracket for movement thereupon into and out of operative position, adjustable means for limiting shifting movements of saidbracket to predetermined different operative positions of said edgeguide, and manually operable means for shifting said bracket.

2. In a sewing machine, a work-support,"-

stitch-forming, and work-feeding mechanisms a trimmer-blade having an operative path of movement substantially parallel with said worksupport and a cutting edge opposed to the direction of feed, anedge-guide, a supporting bracket 2 upon which said edge-guide is mounted for movement into and out of operative position, manually operable means for shifting said bracket relatively to said trimmer-blade transversely of the direction of feed, and means for adjustably limiting the extent of shifting movement of said bracket to thereby predetermined difierent operative positions of said edge-guide with respect to the path of movement of said trimmer-blade cutting edge.

3. In a sewing machine, in combination, stitchforming mechanism including a vertically reciprocatory needle, work-feeding mechanism, a horizontally vibratory trimmer-blade carrier, a trimmer-blade actuating lever pivotally supporting said carrier for swinging movements into and out of operative position, a releasable connection between said carrier and lever, an edge-guide, a bracket pivotally supporting said edge-guide for swinging movements into and out of operative position relatively to said carrier, and manually operable means for shifting said bracket in a direction transversely of the direction of feed from one operative position of said edge-guide to another spaced differently from the path of movement of said needle.

4. In a sewing machine, stitch-forming mechanism including a reciprocatory needle, workfeeding mechanism, a trimmer-blade having its cutting edge opposed to the direction of feed, a horizontally vibratory trimmer-blade carrier, supporting means for said carrier providing for shifting said trimmer-blade into and out of operative position, a bracket supported for shifting movements transversely of the direction of feed and having a shelf overhanging said carrier, an edge-guide pivotally carried by said bracketshelf for swinging movement into and out of operative position, means limiting the extent of shifting movement of said bracket in opposite directions, and. a manually operable lever for shifting said bracket to thereby carry said edge-guide from one to another of predetermined operative positions with respect to the path of movement of said trimmer-blade cutting edge.

5. In a sewing machine, a work-supporting cloth-plate, stitch-forming mechanism including a reciprocatory needle, work-feeding mechanism, a supporting plate detachably secured upon said cloth-plate, an actuating lever mounted upon said supporting plate, a trimmer-blade carrier supported by said lever, a bracket mounted upon said supporting plate for shifting movements transversely of the direction of feed, an edgeguide carried by said bracket contiguous to the path of the needle, adjustable stops upon said supporting plate limiting movement of said bracket in opposite directions, a hand-lever pivotally mounted upon said supporting plate, and an operative connection between said hand-lever and bracket for shifting said bracket and thereby said edge-guide by manipulation of said handlever.

6. In a sewing machine, a horizontally disposed work-support, stitch-forming mechanism including a vertically reciprocatory needle, work-feeding mechanism, a bracket mounted upon said work-support for oppositely directed movements transverse to the direction of feed, said bracket having a vertical wall provided with a shelf overhanging the work-support, an edge-guide pivotally mounted upon said bracket-shelf for hori- Zontal swinging movements into and out of operative position, a spring upon said vertical wall of the bracket acting to releasably hold said edgeguide in its operative position, a hand-lever pivotally mounted upon said work-support and having an operative connection with said bracket to effect shifting movements thereof by manipulation of said lever, and adjustable stops engaged by said bracket limiting shifting movement thereof in opposite directions.

FREDERIC M. CARD. 

